It has been a busy time at London Fossils and Crystals, thank you all, for understanding the unusual number of days closed over the past few months. But the days are getting longer, it may have been somewhat windy! and wet lately, but the Sun has smiled on us all through this winter.

My parent house has now been cleared and is currently on the market. Their Wedding Anniversary would have been April 16th, so with we are planning to send them onto their next journey together on their special day.

Kevin is due to has an operation during April, along with planned buying trips, Easter holidays, and training/discovery days away for Kevin, April is looking as another busy month.

Anyway, currently I am re-stocking the Tumbled Stones on line and in the shop, which is my favourite job! it takes me weeks and weeks, but I am getting there. I also need to make up more bead bracelet and restock the UK section of Crystal. Richie and I are also trying to get more on line for you to see.

When Richie is not photographing Fossils and Crystals and adding them to the website, he is wrapping and tying Crystals, they are very beautiful. There is a selection on line and even more available at the shop, but sorry we do not wrap or tie to order. Have a look london-fossils-crystals.co.uk/hand-tied-crystal-pendants

On the 25th May 2018, the regulations for the protection of your data change, London Fossils and Crystals have updated our terms and conditions to include full details of your data rights, if you would like to read these click here. You will also see a Cookie notification on the front page, just click on it and you can move on from the legal bit we have to do and enjoy browsing the website.

Running this forever growing little business and online site we have never got around to sending out our planned ‘newsletters’. So I have decided to remove the option of opting in for a newsletter as I honestly don’t think we will ever have the time to send one! Also my website provider has joined up to another company to send newsletters through, which means your information being passed on, and I personally choose not to do this even though many many sites use this way of sending out newsletters. So many apologies if you have been waiting for your first and our first newsletter.

Anyway,

In January we had a refit/rearrange of our back room, we now have lovely glass cabinets displaying some of our beautiful Crystals and Fossils, plus a dedicated office area.

We seem to also be buying more and more new stock for the shop!This keeps us very busy pricing up our new treasures and adding what we can to the web site. We have more buying trips planned for June, so please check the website or our FaceBook page to see when we will be closed both at the shop and for online orders.

I would write more, but little shop has had a busy day with lovely people, so next time.

This time last year my Heart decided to develop a problem which I and my family now have to live with forever, ah well, 'Que sera sera' as the song goes.

If you have ever visited you will know that London Fossils & Crystals is a small shop with two rooms, anyway, one year exactly to my heart starting to have a problem, I came into work to find water pouring through the ceiling of the back room which is part of our retail space, treatment and office area. The water is coming from a leaking pipe in one of the flats above the shop. Today,the 26th October 2017 is day 6 of our problem, and despite all of Kevins best efforts, countless phone calls and emails we are still waiting for our landlords, Southwark Council to do something. Yes, the water is still flowing!!!!

All week we have been moving stock out of the backroom into the front room of the shop, tired is an understatement to describe how we feel.

So, if you come into the shop and we are not as bright and bubbly as we normally are thats why!

This coming weekend is the May Day bank holiday in the UK and we are going off on one of our camping trips, to a new place we’ve never been that only caters for "off grid” campers. No generators, no electrical hook-ups and no fancy shower blocks, just composting toilets. Sheila and I like places like this where we can enjoy a weekend without modern distractions and where we can spend the evenings sitting around a campfire…..maybe for warmth but certainly for atmosphere.

This got me thinking as this weekend marks the ancient festival of Beltane, a festival which is especially marked by the lighting of a fire.

So what is Beltane?

It marks the beginning of the Summer, a time when cattle would be driven out into the summer pastures. Rituals would be performed to protect the cattle, crops and the family, especially to encourage growth. A special bonfire would be lit and the people and cattle would walk around the fire to invoke the protective powers of the Beltane fire. All of the hearth fires in the village or on the farm would be doused and then re-lit with burning wood from the Beltane fire. Feasting was carried out at these gatherings and some of the food and drink would be offered to the appropriate Gods.

The doors and windows of the homes, the cattle barns and indeed the cattle themselves would be decorated with yellow may flowers to signify the fire. At one time it was believed that bathing in the Beltane dew would help maintain youthfulness.

The Beltane celebrations begin at sundown on the 30th April in the Northern Hemisphere and at sundown on November 1st in the Southern Hemisphere.

Along with Samhain, Imbolc and Lughnasadh it is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals and it is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish Literature being associated with some important events in Irish mythology.

Beltane is a solar cross-quarter festival, it is the mid-point in the Suns journey between the spring equinox and the summer solstice…..perfectly poised at the cusp of spring and summer. We see the Earth coming to life again, the trees are greening, blossom is flowering and there is a strong sense of the good to come. Pagans and Neo-Pagans believe that as the Power of the Sun strengthens and grows that the God has come of age and continues his courtship of the Goddess.

Beltane or May Day is directly across the wheel of the year from Samhain and marks a gate between the worlds, opening the way for spirits to gain embodiment in new life, as lambs or calves or other animal offspring.

The fire is a major feature of this festival, indeed in ancient times in Celtic lands the Druids would have lit two great fires between which the cattle would be driven and the people would walk. This ceremony would invoke purification, passion, fertility and blessings. Modern Wiccans use this time of year to work their magick for fertility, creative expression, abundance, success and well-being.

Modern Beltane rituals take much from tradition. Many communities celebrate by dancing around a Maypole, but did you know that originally the tree trunk which makes up the Maypole with its tip buried in the Earth symbolises the Male God fertilising the Female Mother Earth. The dancing celebrates this union by decorating the Maypole with ribbons.

Other rituals don’t require a community but can be celebrated individually. One such ritual is to decorate the doors and windows of a house with May Boughs all the while invoking protection and blessings. In some parts of North America the homeowners decorate a May Bush, usually a Rowan or Hawthorn which they decorate with ribbons, flowers and decorated egg shells.

Whatever way you choose to celebrate Beltane do so with joy for this is really a time of celebration and happiness. The dark winter is over and the hard work on the land over the summer has yet to begin, rejoice in all of life’s pleasures……

Dance, Feast, Make Merry and above all celebrate love. All of these acts are nurturing to Mother Earth who in her turn is nurturing to us.

We have had some lovely weather lately in Central London, actually all over the UK, so Kevin and I are preparing for our first camping trip of the year this forthcoming Easter holiday weekend (so its bound to rain or blow a gale!) As well as looking after all of our visitors to the shop, we have started a partial re-fit of our display. This will enable us to display all of the lovely new items we have to offer and be sure that the shelves will stand up to all the weight of Fossils, Rocks and Minerals we have on show. Please enjoy our precious world and the Seasons where ever you are, and should you find yourself in London we all look forward to seeing you in our magical little shop.